Badass Baltimore Beer Week Kickoffs with Boog Powell

As I’m sure many of you know, these days I reside in the beautiful Pine Tree State. But what you might not know is that I actually grew up in Washington D.C. (and still have a good deal of family in the D.C. Metro). And, having grown up in the Nation’s Capital in a big baseball-loving family at a time before there were such things as the Nationals, I went to a lot of Orioles games and am well familiar with the name Boog Powell.

Therefore I was pretty excited to discover a little writeup this morning on the upcoming first ever Baltimore Beer Week. According to The Baltimore Sun,

Boog Powell, one of baseball’s historic sluggers and a longtime friend of beer, will start Baltimore Beer Week with a mighty blow.Powell, who socked 339 home runs in his 17- year career, will crack open a cask of beer aboard the USS Constellation in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

The ticketed event, set for the evening of October 8th will inaugurate the first Baltimore Beer Week — a 10-day celebration from October 8-18th of the region’s strong brewing culture.

It sounds like the folks behind Baltimore Beer Week have some awesome events lined up for the inaugural event. For instance, The Brewers Association of Maryland will hold an Oktoberfest celebration on the 10th which will feature twelve Maryland breweries pouring nearly 75 beers (event to be held at the Timonium Fairgrounds); an event entitled the Wood Chesapeake Real Ale Festival, hosted by the aptly named Society for Preservation of Beers on October 17th, where 30-odd cask-conditioned ales will be tapped, and a Baltimore beer pioneer’s lunch on October 12th at Baltimore’s famous Bertha’s (you’ve probably seen the “Eat Bertha’s Muscles” bumper stickers) where the city’s rich beer history will be discussed.

And just in case there was any doubt as to Powell’s credentials for kicking off such a beer-filled week of festivities (in case Boog’s Barbecue at Camden Yards wasn’t enough to qualify him) he told the Baltimore Sun,

Powell played for the Orioles during the period when the team’s owner, Jerold C. Hoffberger, also owned Baltimore’s National Brewing Company. “At the start of a home stand every player would get a case of National beer,” Powell recalled. “Some players didn’t drink so, as a good teammate, I volunteered to relieve them of their beer.”

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3 comments

Cheers to Boog for kicking this off. I’ve been a die-hard O’s fan my whole life and there is nothing better than drinking a beer on the inner harbor after a mid-summer game. I like the timing of the event too, as it will help people forget about the quietness of Camden Yards in October :>)